DOCSLIB.ORG

Missing Girls in Spain Libertad González May 2014

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Missing Girls in Spain Libertad González May 2014 Missing Girls in Spain Libertad González May 2014 Barcelona GSE Working Paper Series Working Paper nº 760 Missing girls in Spain Libertad González (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona GSE) May 2014 Abstract: I document extremely son-biased sex ratios at birth among Asian-born parents in Spain. Using data on the universe of registered births in Spain during 2007- 2012, I show that there are 117 boys per 100 girls born to Indian parents, compared with a national average of 107 boys per 100 girls. The difference is even more pronounced at higher parities. Indian parents with one or more previous children have 143 boys per 100 girls (117 for Chinese parents with at least two previous children). These biases are significant even after controlling for a broad range of family characteristics. The most likely mechanism is sex-selective abortions. I find no increase in the sex ratio after the 2010 reform that deregulated abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. JEL codes: J13 Keywords: fertility, sex ratio, abortion, sex selection, son preference, India, Spain. I thank one anonymous referee and the students in my graduate Labor Economics class at the Barcelona GSE in the Spring of 2014 for their useful comments. Any remaining errors are my own. 1. Introduction It is well-known that fertility rates are higher among immigrants than natives, in Spain as well as in other countries (Adsera and Ferrer, 2013). For instance, in 2012 the birth rate among Spanish nationals was about 44 births per 1,000 women, compared with 51 for foreign nationals (see Figure 1).1 It has also been documented that the fertility patterns of immigrants tend to reflect those in the source country (Fernández and Fogli, 2009), although there is also evidence of assimilation in fertility behaviors (Mayer and Riphahn, 2000). Several Asian countries (notably India and China) are known for their increasingly biased sex-ratios in favor of boys (Jha et al., 2006, Abrevaya, 2009), a phenomenon which is referred to by the term “missing girls”. There is some recent evidence that these patterns are also present among Asian immigrants in developed countries (see Abrevaya, 2009 and Almond & Edlund, 2008 for the US, Dubuc and Coleman, 2007 for the UK and Almond et al., 2013 for Canada). In this paper I use birth-certificate data to document for the first time son-biased sex-ratios at birth among Asian immigrants in Spain. This bias is particularly pronounced among parents born in India, and for higher parities, and it remains significant after controlling for a wide range of family characteristics. I argue that the most likely mechanism driving the low fraction of newborn girls is the practice of sex-selective abortions among (some) Indian families in Spain.2 Other methods potentially used by families with a preference for sons, such as selective fertility stopping (families that stop having children as soon as they have a son), cannot 1 Source: Spanish National Statistical Institute (www.ine.es). 2 Other methods for prenatal sex-selection, such as gender-selective in-vitro fertilization and sperm sorting, are illegal for non-therapeutic reasons in Spain. 1 by themselves generate a biased sex ratio at birth (although they would generate other patterns such as girls having on average more siblings than boys). In 2010, a reform in the legal regulation of abortion in Spain made it easier to get an abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. I evaluate the effect of this reform on the degree of sex-selection among Asian parents, but find little evidence that the reform led to any increase in the prevalence of sex-selection. This is consistent with the most widely used methods for sex determination (ultrasound and amniocentesis) not being available before week 16 of the pregnancy. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the methodology and the data used in the analysis. Section 3 presents the results, and section 4 concludes. 2. Methods and data The main data source comes from birth-certificate data, as made publicly available by the Spanish National Statistical Institute (www.ine.es). The micro-data files provide information on the universe of births registered annually in Spain, including some demographic variables for the parents. I focus on years 2007-2012, since before 2007 no information was provided on the country of birth of the parents. As an additional data source, I also explore the aggregate data provided by the National Statistical Institute on registered abortions (by weeks of gestation, country of birth of the mother, etc). I focus on singleton births (less than 2% of all births were multiple). There were a total of 2,810,143 registered singleton births in Spain between 2007 and 2012, almost 18% of them with both parents born outside of Spain (see Table 1). Almost 8% of newborns with foreign-born parents (about 38,000) had both parents born in Asia. There are 24,499 births with both parents born in China (26,977 with at least one parent born 2 in China), and 2,805 with both parents born in India (3,665 with at least one parent born in India).3 The descriptive analysis starts by calculating sex ratios at birth. The sex ratio is defined as the number of boys born per 100 girls. A sex ratio of about 105 is considered “biologically normal” (Almond & Edlund, 2008). The econometric analysis estimates the following equation on the sample of all singleton births: (1) Bic = + Iic + Xic + ic Each observation refers to an individual newborn baby i, with parents born in country c. The dependent variable takes value 1 if the newborn is a boy (0 if it’s a girl). The main explanatory variable, I, is an indicator that takes value 1 if both parents are born outside of Spain. A second specification defines I as equal to 1 if both parents are Asian-born, and a third one uses a set of indicators for specific source countries. I include control variables X that might be related to the sex of the baby (age of the mother and father, education of the mother, year dummies, and number of previous children). The coefficient of interest, , will be different from zero if immigrant parents are more (or less) likely than natives to give birth to boys. In additional specifications, I interact the indicators of country of birth of the parents with birth order. As has been noted in the literature (Abrevaya 2009), once a family approaches its maximum size (the desired total number of children), the incentives for sex selection increase if there is a strong preference for one sex over the other (given the sex composition of the previous children). Thus, we would expect that 3 There are 7 Asian countries reported separately in the birth-certificate data. The Asian country with the highest number of immigrant parents is China (65%), followed by Pakistan (15%), the Philippines (8%) and India (7%). 3 parents with a preference for boys will be more likely to have sex-selective abortions, the higher the birth order of the child. Ideally, we would like to be able to control for the sex of previous children born to the same parents. We would expect that, among parents with a preference for boys having a third child, a family where the first two children were girls will be more likely to select the sex of the third child, compared with a family with two boys. However, the Spanish birth-certificate data do not provide information on the sex of the previous children. 3. Results 3.1 Descriptive results Descriptive statistics for the sample of singletons born in Spain in 2007-2012 are presented in Table 1. The fraction of boys among all singleton births was 51.7%, which translates into an overall sex ratio at birth of 106.9 boys born per 100 girls ((51.7x100)/48.3), with no particular trend apparent over the time period analyzed. Mothers are on average 31 years old at birth, while fathers are about two years older. Almost 2% of babies have no registered father. About 27% of the mothers have a high- school degree but no college, and 30% are university-educated. Regarding birth order, 54% of births are first-born children for the mother, while 36% are second-born, and only 10% of mothers had 2 or more previous children. Figure 2 shows the sex ratio at birth for native parents, all immigrant parents, and Chinese and Indian parents. The sex ratio is not significantly different between native (106.8) and foreign-born parents (107). The sex ratio for Chinese parents is also very close to the one for natives (107.1). However, Indian parents in Spain are significantly less likely to give birth to girls, compared with native parents as well as with other 4 immigrant source countries. Indian parents had 117 boys per 100 girls. This suggests that the practice of sex-selective abortions, documented in India, might also be prevalent among Indian families residing in Spain. Figure 3 breaks down the sex ratios by birth order, showing the number of boys born per 100 girls, separately for women having their first, second, third and higher- order child. The sex ratio in the full sample is close to 107 for all birth orders. Chinese parents have 106 boys per 100 girls in first and second births. However, third births to Chinese parents show a sex ratio of 116, and the ratio is 122 for higher-order births. This suggests some degree of sex selection among Chinese parents with two or more previous children.4 The trend becomes striking in the case of Indian parents.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • PROJECTE ÚTER Atenció Aranyes! Just As We Needed Many Voices to Make This Mural Possible, Now We Need Many More to Bring It to Life
    PROJECT ÚTER Project Uter Considering the intense mobilizations that have taken place in Spain in recent years, a “debate” about abor- tion seemed necessary and liberating to us. We consi- dered addressing the issue using a graphic narrative, leaving aside the pitfalls of written language, so that the work could turn into a useful communication tool that would allow us to work on a very historic and universal topic that is still taboo around the world. Our aim is to create images that communicate. Listening first, we began to collect people’s stories in order to engage in dialogue with them and generate conversations. Some stories turned into anecdotes that appear translated into metaphors in the final drawing. Others helped to frame the issue, to gain perspecti- ve, to problematize it. Just like the Beehive Design Collective does, we reinvigorate traditions of oral history and story-telling images that encourage slow, methodical consideration. Also, we use animals to represent people’s stories. If you look carefully, you’ll see how most of the names of animals that appear in the poster are used to insult women, especially in the Spanish language. They suddenly became the heroines of this story, so we can re-appropriate those words in an empowering way We want to share these images and the process that made them by organizing presentations in which we tell the stories behind this graphic. This zine is a written version so folks can take it home with them and explore the images more thoroughly. We are always open to feedback and new ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effect of Abortion Legalization on Fertility, Marriage, and Long-Term Outcomes for Women
    The Effect of Abortion Legalization on Fertility, Marriage, and Long-term Outcomes for Women Libertad González* Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona GSE Sergi Jiménez-Martín Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona GSE and FEDEA Natalia Nollenberger IE Business School-IE University Judit Vall Castello Universitat de Barcelona, IEB & CRES-UPF May 2018 Abstract: We evaluate the short- and long-term effects for women of access to legal, subsidized abortion, by exploiting the Spanish legalization of abortion in 1985. We find robust evidence that the legalization led to an immediate decrease in the number of births to women aged 21 and younger. This effect was driven by provinces with a higher supply of abortion services. Young women affected by the reform were also less likely to marry. We also find that the affected cohorts of women achieved higher educational attainment, and reported higher life satisfaction 15 years after the reform. Keywords: Abortion, fertility, education, labor market outcomes, satisfaction JEL codes: J12, J13, I21, C21 * Corresponding author ([email protected]). We are grateful to seminar participants at UPF, Brunel University, UNU-MERIT at Maastricht University, XLI Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía and at the Centre for Demographic Studies at UAB. All have provided very constructive comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. We also thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy grant ECO2014-52238-R for its financial support. 1. Introduction Most countries in the world allow abortion in order to save a woman’s life. However, only 30% of all countries permit access to abortion on request, and 35% of them require economic or social reasons to grant access to abortion (UN World Abortion Policies 2013).
    [Show full text]
  • The Biomedicalisation of Illegal Abortion: the Double Life of Misoprostol in Brazil a Biomedicalização Do Aborto Ilegal
    The biomedicalisation of illegal abortion DE ZORDO, Silvia. The biomedicalisation of illegal abortion: the double life of misoprostol in Brazil. História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, v.23, n.1, jan.-mar. 2016, p.19-35. Abstract This paper examines the double life of misoprostol in Brazil, where it is illegally The biomedicalisation used by women as an abortifacient and legally used in obstetric hospital wards. Based on my doctoral and post- of illegal abortion: the doctoral anthropological research on contraception and abortion in Salvador, double life of misoprostol Bahia, this paper initially traces the “conversion” of misoprostol from a drug in Brazil to treat ulcers to a self-administered abortifacient in Latin America, and its later conversion to aneclectic global A biomedicalização do obstetric tool. It then shows how, while reducing maternal mortality, its use as aborto ilegal: a vida dupla an illegal abortifacient has reinforced the double reproductive citizenship regime do misoprostol no Brasil existing in countries with restrictive abortion laws and poor post-abortion care services, where poor women using it illegally are stigmatised, discriminated against and exposed to potentially severe health risks. Keywords: illegal abortion; misoprostol; reproductive health; biomedicalisation; Brazil. Resumo O artigo examina a vida dupla do misoprostol no Brasil, onde ele é usado ilegalmente por mulheres como um facilitador do aborto, e legalmente, em alas de obstetrícia de hospitais. Utilizei minhas pesquisas antropológicas de doutorado e pós-doutorado sobre contracepção e aborto em Salvador, Bahia. Começo retratando a “conversão” do misoprostol, medicamento usado para tratar úlceras, em um facilitador do aborto autoadministrado na América Latina, e sua conversão em uma ferramenta de obstetrícia global.
    [Show full text]
  • On Death and Dworkin: a Critique of His Theory of Inviolability Richard Stith Valparaiso University, [email protected]
    Valparaiso University ValpoScholar Law Faculty Publications Law Faculty Presentations and Publications 1997 On Death and Dworkin: A Critique of His Theory of Inviolability Richard Stith Valparaiso University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.valpo.edu/law_fac_pubs Part of the Human Rights Law Commons Recommended Citation Richard Stith, On Death and Dworkin: A Critique of His Theory of Inviolability, 56 Md. L. Rev. 289 (1997). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Faculty Presentations and Publications at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. MARYLAND LAW REVIEW VOLUME 56 1997 NUMBER 2 © Copyright Maryland Law Review, Inc. 1997 Articles ON DEATH AND DWORKIN: A CRITIQUE OF HIS THEORY OF INVIOLABILITY RicHARD STITH* INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY ................................... 289 I. THE AMBIVALENCE OF ABORTION ACCORDING TO D W ORKIN ............................................... 298 II. DWORKIN'S INVESTMENT-BASED THEORY OF INVIOLABILITY . 310 III. UNFORTUNATE CONSEQUENCES OF VALUING INVESTMENT.. 314 IV. DWORKIN'S MISTAKE: IGNORING THE INDIVIDUAL ......... 328 A. Investment Ignores Individuality ....................... 331 B. Valuing Ignores Particularity.......................... 337 V. A RESPECT-BASED THEORY OF INVIOLABILITY .............. 347 VI. FORTUNATE CONSEQUENCES OF RESPECTING LIFE ......... 352 VII. THE AMBIVALENCE OF ABORTION REVISITED .............. 358 CONCLUSION ................................................... 382 INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY Ronald Dworkin has proposed a new measure of human dignity, one that he calls "inviolability"1 and that he correlates to the amount © Copyright 1997 by Richard Stith. * Professor of Law, Valparaiso University. A.B., Harvard College; MA, University of California, Berkeley; M.
    [Show full text]
  • Reproductive Justice, Public Policy, and Abortion on the Basis of Fetal
    Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU Journal of Law and Health Law Journals 2015 Reproductive Justice, Public Policy, and Abortion on the Basis of Fetal Impairment: Lessons from International Human Rights Law and the Potential Impact of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Carole J. Petersen University of Hawaii at Manoa Follow this and additional works at: http://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/jlh Part of the Disability Law Commons, Health Law Commons, International Law Commons, and the Medical Jurisprudence Commons Recommended Citation Carole J. Petersen, Reproductive Justice, Public Policy, and Abortion on the Basis of Fetal Impairment: Lessons from International Human Rights Law and the Potential Impact of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 28 J.L. & Health 121 (2015) available at http://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/jlh/vol28/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Law and Health by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE, PUBLIC POLICY, AND ABORTION ON THE BASIS OF FETAL IMPAIRMENT: LESSONS FROM INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES* CAROLE J. PETERSEN** I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 122 II. INTRODUCING NORTH DAKOTA’S H.B. 1305: WHY THE BAN ON DISABILITY-SELECTIVE ABORTION IS MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN PREVIOUS BANS ON SEX-SELECTIVE ABORTION ........................................................................... 126 III. THE HISTORY OF EUGENICS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE MODERN LAW AND PRACTICE OF ABORTION ...............
    [Show full text]
  • European Population Conference 2012 in Stockholm
    European Population Conference 2012 13–16 June 2012 Stockholm, Sweden Special Theme: Gender, Policies and Population Programme and Abstracts EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR POPULATION STUDIES Stockholm University Demography Unit, SUDA Department of Sociology Cover Design and Layout: B Adolfsson Design Printed by: Davidssons Tryckeri Printed in Sweden 2012 CONTENTS Welcome to the EPC 2012 ...................................................................... 4 Organizers of the EPC 2012 .................................................................. 6 Organizing Committees ......................................................................... 8 Acknowledgements ................................................................................. 9 Information about the Conference ....................................................... 10 Opening Plenary, EAPS General Assembly, EPC 2012 Party, City of Stockholm Reception, Closing Ceremony ................................ 12 Maps of Conference Facilities................................................................ 14 Exhibitors...............................................................................................19 Side Meetings ........................................................................................20 EPC 2012 Programme at a Glance........................................................23 EPC 2012 Programme Summary ..........................................................24 EPC 2012 Programme Overview by Topic ...........................................29 EPC 2012
    [Show full text]
  • Why Abortion Is Performed in Spain Until 26 Weeks PDF-Format
    Spain is one of the last European countries which incorporated in its Legislation the law 9/1985, which reforms the actual Penal Code of Conduct in its Article 417, whereby it legalizes partially WHY ABORTION IS PERFORMED Provoked Abortion, if it is being performed by a doctor or under IN SPAIN UNTIL 26 WEEKS his/her supervision. In further modifications the Spanish Code of Conduct has maintained this law: Organic Law 9/1985, 5th July which states that: 1. Abortion shall not be penalized if performed by a doctor or under his supervision in an accredited public or private sanitary www.ACAI.es establishment, with the consent of the pregnant woman, when www.atochaginecologica.es any of the following circumstances are justified: Mike Vidot & Santiago Barambio. Spain 1.ª when the pregnancy presents a serious danger for the physical 3.ª when it is presumed that the foetus will be born with serious or psychological health of the mother. Such circumstances physical or psychological abnormalities. should be justified previously by a Medical Report previously A prior Medical report emitted and certified by 2 specialists who emitted by a doctor in this specialized field. The doctor who will not participate in the abortion is required. Under these performs the abortion cannot write this report. circumstances abortion can be performed until 22 weeks. En cases whereby there is urgency for the mothers’ health, this Medical Report or the Informed Consent of the patient may not 2. In the circumstances mentioned previously (3.ª), the conduct be necessary. of the mother shall not be punishable even if the abortion is not performed in an accredited public or private center or if the 2.ª if the pregnancy is a consequence of rape (article 429), this required medical certificates have not been emitted.
    [Show full text]
  • Adopted Resolution on the Draft Law on Abortion in Spain
    Approved resolution The edited version will be available as soon as possible ON THE DRAFT LAW ON ABORTION IN SPAIN AGAINST THE DRAFT LAW ON PROTECTION OF RIGHTS OF PREGNANT WOMEN AND IN DEFENSE OF SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND VOLUNTARY TERMINATION PREGNANCY In front of the adoption of the Draft Law designed to protect the rights of pregnant women that has recently presented the conservative Government in Spain, we European Greens want to show our opposition to a Draft Law that represents an unacceptable step back on women's rights to decide about their own bodies. It also represents a direct aggression to women’s rights and freedom. The proposed Law on Sexual and Reproductive Rights and voluntary interruption of pregnancy presented by the PP conservative Government means a disparagement for women’s rights. From a strong ultraconservative and reactionary perspective, it responds to the pressures and the desire of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and it means the hardest step back on this field of our democratic era. Limiting abortion in only two cases, when serious danger of physical or mental health, and for life of the pregnant woman; and when pregnancy as the result of a crime rape, it places Spanish legal framework far away from international treaties. Far away from many European Resolutions, and from any of the recommendations of the World Health Organization in the field of sexual and reproductive rights. And it relegates women's rights to the levels of countries that do not subscribe to international treaties and violates human rights. On the proposed Draft, the right for women to decide on their own body is transferred to the supervision of doctors, who at the same time, are placed under penal threats based on retrogrades moral criteria that have little to do with ethics or scientific criteria.
    [Show full text]
  • DSW-Pol Sc-Rev1
    European Population Forum 2004: Population Challenges and Policy Responses Jörg F. Maas and Christian Resch Population and reproductive health issues in the ECE region: the political scene Background paper for the session on: Global population and development trends: the European view Disclaimer: This document has been reproduced without formal editing. The views expressed in it are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the United Nations Population Fund. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the United Nations Population Fund concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers and boundaries. – German Foundation for World Population – Population and Reproductive Health Issues in the ECE Region: the Political Scene Background Paper for the European Population Forum Geneva, January 12-14, 2004 By Dr Jörg F Maas and Christian Resch Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW) Göttinger Chaussee 115 30459 Hannover – Germany Tel.: +49 511 94373-0 Fax: +49 511 94373-73 E-mail: <[email protected]> URL: <www.dsw-online.de> November 28, 2003 1 Table of Contents List of Acronyms Preface Introduction 1. The National Political Scene 1.1.Global Demographics: The World Divided Into Four Groups 1.2. Ageing 1.3. Immigration 1.4. The Next Wave – HIV/AIDS as Growing Problem of Reproductive Health in the UNECE Region 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Forsaken Lives:The Harmful Impact of the Philippine Criminal Abortion
    FORSAKEN LIVESThe Harmful Impact of the Philippine Criminal Abortion Ban FORSAKEN LIVES The Harmful Impact of the Philippine Criminal Abortion Ban © 2010 Center for Reproductive Rights Printed in the United States Any part of this report may be copied, translated, or adapted with permission from the authors, provided that the parts copied are distributed free or at cost (not for profit) and the Center for Reproductive Rights is acknowledged as the author. Any commercial reproduc- tion requires prior written permission from the Center for Reproductive Rights. The Center for Reproductive Rights would appreciate receiving a copy of any materi- als in which information from this report is used. Image Credits: Luis Liwanag, Photojournalist Center for Reproductive Rights 120 Wall Street, 14th Floor New York, NY 10005 United States Tel +1 917 637 3600 Fax +1 917 637 3666 [email protected] www.reproductiverights.org 2 FORSAKEN LIVES: THE HARmFuL ImPACT OF THE PHILIPPINE CRImINAL ABORTION BAN FORSAKEN LIVES: THE HARmFuL ImPACT OF THE PHILIPPINE CRImINAL ABORTION BAN 3 Table of Contents Purpose of the Report .................................................................................................................2 OUR MISSION Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... The Center for Reproductive Rights uses the law 3 to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental Glossary and List of Common Acronyms ...............................................................................4
    [Show full text]
  • Barriers to Access to Abortion in Spain Updated January 2021 1
    Barriers to access to abortion in Spain Updated January 2021 1. Institutional conscientious objection In Spain, Organic Law 2/2010 on sexual and reproductive health and voluntary termination of pregnancy (LO 2/2010) states that “refusal to perform a termination of pregnancy procedure for reasons of conscience is always an individual decision by the healthcare personnel directly involved in the voluntary termination of pregnancy, which must be made in advance and communicated in writing” (Article 19.2, LO 2/2010). However, many public hospitals claim institutional, not individual, conscientious objection, refusing to perform abortions and referring all cases to licensed private clinics. Since 2010, 91% of all abortions have been referred to private clinics from the public hospitals.1 In 2018, three autonomous communities (Aragón, Extremadura, and Murcia) reported that no abortions were performed in their public hospitals, though some were performed in private clinics. Institutional conscientious objection is also often done through deceit. Accurate information on the health of the fetus, abortion rights, and the process for requesting abortion is withheld from women. In 2017, Women’s Link sued the health department of Murcia in the case of Antonia,2 a woman who went to the public hospital in Santa Lucía de Cartagena and was not provided with accurate information on the serious malformations of her fetus. The diagnostic tests she needed in order to decide whether to continue with the pregnancy were delayed. 2. Geographic and socioeconomic discrimination LO 2/2010 also states that “all women will be guaranteed equal access to these services, regardless of place of residence” (Article 19.1, LO 2/2010).
    [Show full text]
  • The Authority of the Catholic Church on Abortion Legislation The
    The Authority of the Catholic Church on Abortion Legislation The Catholic Church’s influence on the Abortion Law in Spain through Political Party influence and its competition with the rising Feminist Movement Maggy Boone A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Trans-Atlantic Masters in the Department of Political Science. Chapel Hill 2012 Approved By: John Stephens Gary Marks Liesbet Hooghe Abstract MAGGY BOONE: The Authority of the Catholic Church on Abortion Legislation: The Catholic Church’s influence on the Abortion Law in Spain through Political Party influence and its competition with the rising Feminist Movement (Under the Direction of John Stephens) The politics of abortion in Spain is a complicated case due to the fact that abortion legislation is not solely restricted to the political sphere. Since the sixth century, the Catholic Church has had an influential role within the state of Spain and the creation of most policies. After the authoritarian regime of Franco in the mid-twentieth century, the Catholic Church began to, for the first time; attempt to truly separate itself from the government. However, due to the Catholic values that had been part of the political system for an extensive time period within the country, the conservative parties have continued to raise issues on the liberalization of abortion legislation, and specifically, the right to life at the moment of conception. Although the Catholic Church as an institution has continued to remove itself from political debates, the conservative party relentlessly pushes Catholic ideals onto the Spanish public.
    [Show full text]